A strange sense of dejavu ...

John is a "Top Gear" fan - in fact the whole family is.  We have all of the released DVD's of the show, most of the books written by Richard Hammond, James May and  Jeremy Clarkson and avidly watch and tape each TV series as it airs.

John has received his fair share of these as birthday and fathers day gifts but there has been the occasional spontaneous "walking through Dymocks" purchase.  That was how we came to get the paperback version of "As You Do" by Richard Hammond a couple of months back - reduced from $49.95 to $10 on the bargain table.

"Do you have this one?" I ask.

"No - not that one" came the reply.

It comes home and is placed on his bedside table - John is what I would call an on again / off again book reader - he does it in fits and starts, alternating between huge computer manuals for work, magazine and newspapers.  So fast forward to this week and he's about 200 pages in of the 314.

I'm in our bedroom on Tuesday, moving, throwing and sorting through drawers and cupboards.  I have a stock pile of books, magazines and newspapers from his bedside bottom draw ready for John to put away or trash as required which I ask him to do that evening before bed.  And what do you suppose he rather sheepishly discovers? - yep the hardcover copy of "As You Do" neatly bookmarked at page 186 which is where he must have gotten up to the first time around with it.  I ask him how on earth he could get so far into the book without realising he had already read it?

"I thought it was vaguely familiar" he said.

MEN !!!!

Small things this week ...

Outside my window … is blue sky, sunshine and a gentle breeze.  Makes a lovely change from the gale force wind of the last few days.

I am thinking about ... how we really need to get in and clean out the garage - it is such a mess but have to admit I'm not very motivated to do it.
I am thankful for ... Rachel finally completing her major works for both Art and Design and technology at school.  It has been a stressful couple of weeks for her, with lots of late night but now that she has finally finished it is like a weight has been lifted.

I am reading ...  "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Steig Larsson.  I've just started having been on a very long wait-list at my local library - not sure what I will think of this - it is a very large book and many people have told me it is fairly confronting and brooding in places.

I am going ... out Saturday night to see Damien Leith in concert with John.  We very rarely go out so I have been looking forward to it.

Some day ...

Some days it is hard to believe it is winter.  Today is one of those.  Such a beautiful clear sun filled morning.  Gentle breeze and a predicted 18 deg - heck it is high summer in the UK and they aren't even getting temperatures like this.  John and I had breakfast at a cafe in Terrigal, just across the road from this. 

We were both saying how nice it would be to be able to do this regularly - stroll down from the ocean view apartment to partake of cappuccino and croissants. That would be the life - roll on retirement (then reality sets in along with the realisation we have an 11 year old). Deep sigh ........ someday.

Not so Sizzling ...

Ever gone to a fancy restaurant and order a meal that sounds wonderful on the menu and looks even better placed before you - you are salivating with anticipation but then you begin eating it and you start to wonder how could it look and smell so devine but really taste very ordinary and when you finally finish you are left with a sense of disappointment because it was just lacking something - more seasoning, less sauce ? - you're not sure but just know you are oddly dissatisfied.

That is how I feel having just read "Sizzling 16" by Janet Evanovich.  I'm a self confessed Stephanie Plum addict having read and re-read her antics in the series over the past 15 books.  I've loved Stephanie Plum, her bumbling bounty hunter antics, her destruction of car after car, her rescueunbg of Grandma Mazer from funeral home viewings, her long suffering mother.  I've laughed til I cried over vivid descriptions of Lula and Stephanie in outlandish situations, I've simmered through pent up sexual tension between Ranger, Stephanie and Morelli.  "Sizzling 16" still has it all so what am I complaining about?  To be honest I'm not sure - I want Stephanie to grow up and develop more as a character, I want her to make a decision about which guy she wants, I want her to catch a crook without forgetting her handcuffs or rolling around on the floor in some dubious substance, I want her and the series, in short, to move forward.  Every good thing needs to come to an end sometime and I feel that Stephanie Plum needs to go in this direction - four more books and four more stories to wrap up the loose ends and have her fading off happily into the sunset.  I'm sure Janet Evanovich will put us all out of our collective misery by Book 20.

Getting 'Stuck' into my scrapping ...

Friday night is my main scrapping night - I shut myself in my craft room, have the Friday night crime series show on TV and scrap away.  What wonderful therapy. Last night I again concentrated on a couple of sketch challenges - this time for Stuck Sketches. 

This one is for their July 1st sketch.  I am desperately trying to reduce my stash and use up some of my very large pile of patterned paper and embellishment stash - man I could open a store with the amount of stuff I have !  I'm also trying to do layouts using my box of  one-off - yet to be scrapped photos.  This one is a cute photo of Rachel after we had been to the school fete - she had been to the face-painting tent and been done up as a pussy cat just like Sox, our cat of the time.

This one is for the July 15th sketch - again using bits and pieces and old photos.  Gosh I still remember how Rachel would crash in the car on the way home from school, totally zonked after a heavy day in the infants department and there would be my baby, sleeping right along side of her - seems like only yesterday.

Just Scrapping my Boy ...

Continuing on my theme of getting a few layouts done through challenges, I ventured over to Scrap the Boys to participate in the first of their July challenges.  This is a really great site that is now back after having a bit of a break.  It offers wonderful inspiration for boys pages.

The first challenge was to use a portrait shot and record some vital statistics of your 'boy' right now.  Loved how they asked us to included some quirky facts as well - everything about Chris is quirky lol !!  and I managed to use one of those school wallet sized school portrait photos - you know the ones - in packets, in drawers all over the house!  multiplying each year like mice - lol.

The second was to use stamps somewhere on your layout.  Mine are in the title and journaling card.

Small things ...

Outside my window … it is raining, I can hear the water as it falls down through the drainpipe at the corner of the house. It’s a comforting sound.

I am thinking about ... all the things I really need to get in order around the house. Three weeks of school holidays takes it’s toll.

I am thankful for... my back is finally starting to come good. It has been over a weeks since it went out and it has been a very painful experience.

I am reading ... 'Sizzling 16' by Janet Evanovich.  Just picked it up at the library this afternoon after being on the reservation waitlist for quite a while.  So looking forward to getting into this.

I am going ... to go to bed as soon as I finish this post. Tired. Tired. Tired.  We had an electricity cut last night and while it was fortunate it happened close to bedtime anyway when the power finally came back on in the wee small hours - guess which little bunny had to get up to turn everything off that was left running !!

A challenging time ...

Here's a few layouts I have been working on over the last week or so - all for various challenges.

This one is for the monthly sketch challenge over on Scrap the Girls

One for Scraplets

One of Peta on SFS.

Showing a birthday cake over at Scrap Boutique

Challenge #137 over on How Much Is Too Much

Sketch challenge over at Forever Always

Cat capers ...

It's school holidays and I haven't managed to get as much "me" time this week - I wonder why?  I did put together this little layout for How Much Is Too Much Challenge #136 - 4 word title, 5 or more colours and No flowers.  It came out well I think. 

It's all in the eee's ...

Came home this afternoon to find a message written on our whiteboard on the fridge.

Cheese rolling competition – Thursday 4pm. Don’t forget to bring the cheese!

"A little joke",  I thought and asked Christopher what he knew about it.

“Wasn’t me” he says. “Must be Rachel – who else would spell cheese with a double e?”.

After l picked myself up off the floor where I had collapsed from laughing so much I informed him gently that this was indeed how you spelt cheese.

“Oh .....”, he says.

Supersized them ...

Being school holidays I took Christopher and his friend, Jai to see 'Shrek' today, both kids thought it was pretty good and I'll admit there were a few choice moments.  When we got to this scene ...

Christopher leans over and says, "Hey Mum, does he remind you of anyone?".

He couldn't possible mean our rather oversized Mr Zo now could he??

It was a challenge ...

I have been working hard the last couple of weeks - thanks mainly to Peta who inspired me with a blog post a while back about the virtues of doing layouts for challenges.  She's a really busy girl - runs a scrappy business from home, raises four children as well as working and I figured that if she could find the time and incentive to do this why on earth couldn't I?  So I did.  I did 13 layouts for 13 challenges - I may not win anything and that really doesn't matter because I didn't do it for that reason - I did it as a challenge in itself and because I've been feeling a bit flat lately - I was thinking I was losing my scrapbooking mojo.  Doing the layout challenges was fun, it was inspiring and I'm happy to say I don't feel flat anymore. Thanks Peta for the inspiration.